Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
"Flying rats," the angler commented about a couple of seagulls that were squawking over which one would get to perch on a piling closest to the cleaning table. "Darn things ain't good for nothing but crapping on boats and stealing baits"!
The grumpy fisherman was a little taken back when I asked him, "Yeah but where would we be without them?"
"Cleaner boats and bait on our hooks. We'd be a lot better off. That's where we'd be!"
I certainly didn't want to get in a ruffle with the guy over birds, so I allowed the exchange to end at that. But I couldn't help but think about how many fishermen there are like him who don't really know much about, let alone appreciate, the birds that surround us when we're out on the water doing what we do.
They beg for scraps from our lunch, they follow our boats, they sit on the dock pilings and stare at us while we're cleaning fish, we watch for them to show us where the fish are and then they try to steal the bait right off our hooks, they'll squawk, scream, and fight over an old fish skin then drag trash out of a dumpster and poop on our boats. The good, the bad, and the ugly is all there when you're talking about seabirds. But through it all they're as much a part of the environment, the landscape, and life on the coast as the sand, the water, and the fish we pursue. The more one knows about the different birds that surround us, the more they can appreciate the important role our feathered friends play in the salty environment we fish.
Brown Pelican
When I was a kid there were no pelicans here on the shore, but now Delmarva supports a large nesting population of these awkward looking birds. Rarely found more than five miles offshore, brown pelicans are mostly seen flying just off the ocean beaches and over our back bay waters in all but the coldest of months. Diving pelicans can clue anglers to the presence of bunker, mullet or other medium size baitfish.
Wilson's Storm Petrel
Petrels are the little black birds with white rump patches that anglers see offshore that stay close to the surface and flit around the waves. While hovering close to the water to feed on small specks of marine life, these birds use their little webbed feet to literally prance on the surface thus prompting the name "petrel" after St.Peter who once joined Jesus for a walk on the water. Petrels live their entire life over the open ocean and only go ashore for nesting which is done on the southern tip of South America and Antarctica. Petrels are one of the most numerous birds in the world and found in all the oceans. Anglers should watch for congregations of petrels which could indicate the feeding activities of predator fish below.
Greater Shearwater
Shearwaters or "sailor gulls" as they are locally known are medium sized brown and white birds with pointed wings that gracefully glide close to the water and are only seen offshore. They will land on the water and then swim down to at least 30-feet to catch a small fish or steal an angler's bait. A strong presence of these birds will clue fishermen to the possibility of big fish in the area. However, right now there are a lot of offshore anglers who are absolutely hating these birds as they've been attacking and annihilating baits being trolled for tuna and billfish. The good news is that this assault should subside in a week or so as the migration takes most of these birds north for the summer.
Sooty Shearwater
The sooty shearwater is similar in profile to the greater shearwater but it's mostly all black, not as abundant and not as much of a problem for fishermen.
Double Crested Cormorant
These are the skinny black birds that are often seen flying over our coastal bays like strings of geese, or huddled in big groups on the sandbars. They're most abundant during the cold weather months but there's always a small number of them here even in the summer. Cormorants are very proficient at swimming underwater to catch small fish. Cormorants aren't typically used by fishermen to locate good places to fish but if there seems to be a bunch of them working in one area it could be an indication that there is at least some kind of life below.
Great Black-Backed Gull
When mature, these birds are mostly white with a very dark back and top of wings. As gulls go they are one of the largest in this area and are very common around the docks, bay waters and on the ocean relatively close to shore. These are predatory birds that will feed on both live and dead fish and about anything else they can capture or find.
Herring Gull
Herring gulls are similar to the black-backs in that they are quite large and mostly white except that the back and tops of the wings are gray and the wing tips are black. Herring gulls can be found nationwide and many miles from the coast. These are also the species most likely to be seen scavenging in dumpsters and landfills.
During their first couple years of life the plumage of both the herring gull and the black-back are a mottled brown and white. After their second year of life they're much easier to identify by their black or gray backs.
Laughing Gull
Nothing reminds you that you're on the coast like the unique call (or laugh) of a laughing gull. These black headed gulls seldom stray far from the coast but can sometimes be seen hunting for insects in cultivated fields and they're common residents at docks and marinas and will make quite a racket when competing for food. Laughing gulls are not so much hunters as they are scavengers so if fishermen observe them working over open water there is a good chance that predator fish might be feeding and leaving scraps.
Ring-Billed Gull
Rng-billed gulls appear as a small version of the herring gull except that they have a black (not red) ring around their bills. Also like the herring gull, ring -bills can be found very far away from the coast. Their feeding habits are much like that of the laughing gull.
Terns
Terns are the small to medium size birds with sharp pointed wings and a forked tail. They're mostly white with a cap of black feathers on the top of their head. There are about five species of terns that frequent the area including the Royal, Caspian, Least, Arctic, and the Common tern. Terns are fast flyers that can often be seen over the bay or ocean hovering many feet above the water and watching for a small fish to dive down on. Anglers fishing for bluefish, stripers, mackerel or any other species that feed on very small fish should always pay attention to the terns as they can be a great indicator of where you want to be.
They squawk, they steal our baits, they crap on our boats (and sometimes on us!), but where would we be without the diverse array of sea birds that are as much a necessary part of the environment as the fish we pursue? And surely every fisherman can benefit from just a little basic knowledge about the birds that occupy the airspace over their fishing grounds. ยง
